Nicaraguan Miners Trapped After Collapse

A miner after he was rescued at the El Comal gold and silver mine in Bonanza, Nicaragua, on Friday. A total of 26 were trapped after a collapse on Thursday.

Esteban Felix
/ AP

Rescue workers in Nicaragua were trying to reach four trapped miners in the gold and silver mine in the country's south-central city of Bonanza, after 22 others were freed.

The Associated Press quotes the country's first lady Rosario Murillo as saying 20 of the miners were rescued on Friday, in addition to two others who escaped a collapse on Thursday.

The AP says:

"Hundreds of relatives and fellow miners had gathered to pray outside the mine as rescuers lined up several ladders along a 200-foot long tunnel leading toward where the men were trapped. The mine cuts into the side of a mountain and then goes upward.

"Commander Javier Amaya of the rescue team said the rescue plan involved groups 'of five or 10 miners entering the mine on wooden ladders, tying themselves off and going in until they reach them.'"